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"THE CONGRESS VOTING 
INDEPENDENCE" 



A PAINTING BY ROBERT EDGE PINE AND 
EDWARD SAVAGE IN THE HALL OF THE 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 



CHARLES HENRY HART 






PHILADELPHIA 
1905 



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"THE CONGRESS VOTING 
INDEPENDENCE" 



A PAINTING BY ROBERT EDGE PINE AND 
EDWARD SAVAGE IN THE HALL OF THE 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 

CHARLES HENRY HART 



PHILADELPHIA 
1905 



^A* 



o\« 



Fifty copies reprinted from The Pennsylvania 
Magazine of History and Biography for January, 

1905. 

Gift 

Author 
(Person) 




"THE CONGRESS VOTING 
INDEPENDENCE" 

A PAINTING BY ROBERT EDGE PINE AND EDWARD 

SAVAGE IN THE HALL OF THE HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

BY CHARLES HENRY HART 



"No picture of an American historical event is better 
known than John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. 
The crude colossal painting covers considerable wall space, 
twelve by eighteen feet, in the rotunda of the Capitol at 
"Washington, while the beautifully painted small original 
canvas, only twenty by thirty inches, adorns the Trum- 
bull Gallery, in ISTew Haven, and may readily be accepted as 
the artist's masterpiece, with its exquisite miniature portraits, 
several of them, says Mr. John Durand, in his monograph on 
Trumbull, " comparable to the finest limning of Meissonier." 
It was engraved in line by Asher Brown Durand, in 1820, 
the first large and important plate artistically executed in 
this country, which has been copied large and small, far and 
wide, until, with John Eandolph's witty, but senseless, sou- 
briquet of " the shin piece" tacked to it, it is as generally 
familiar as Stuart's Athenseum portrait of Washington. 

The great value of this picture is as a human document, 
preserving as it does the portraits of forty-eight persons 
connected with the most momentous event in the world's 
history next to Magna Oharta. Thirty-six of the portraits 



4 " The Congress Voting Independence." 

were painted by Trumbull from life, nine are copied from 
life-portraits by others, and two, Whipple and Harrison, 
were painted from memory and description. Five of the 
persons in the picture were not signers, one being Charles 
Thomson, the Secretary of Congress, and Willing and Dick- 
inson, of Pennsylvania, and George Clinton and Eobert 
E. Livingston, of New York, who were members on July 4th, 
when the Declaration was adopted, but not in the following 
August when the engrossed copy was ready for signature. 
Of the remaining thirteen signers no portraits were known 
in 1818, when Trumbull finished the original picture. 

Until a decade and a half ago the fact that the same great 
scene, as had animated Trumbull's brush, had several years 
earlier inspired another painter, had been so entirely lost 
sight of as to have been virtually unknown, when, in a dark 
corner of the old Boston Museum, on Tremont Street, the 
writer discovered the painting of The Congress Voting Inde- 
pendence, begun by Robert Edge Pine and finished by Edward 
Savage, now in the hall of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania. Upon comparing the Pine and Trumbull pictures 
there can be but little doubt that Trumbull received some- 
thing more than mere suggestion, from Pine's earlier com- 
position, for the arrangement of his later picture. Both 
pictures are remarkably well composed and while Trum- 
bull's may have more stately dignity, Pine's is unquestionably 
the most realistic and natural. But in the very important 
feature of the architecture of the room in which the im- 
mortal act was consummated, Trumbull did not follow Pine 
and that feature makes the Pine picture of far greater 
historical value and importance than that by Trumbull, as 
Pine reproduces the chamber as it was at the time the 
Declaration was adopted, for, as our story will show, it was 
unquestionably painted within its very walls. The history 
of the picture and of its painters is both interesting and 
important and deserves to be preserved and perpetuated for 
future students. 

Eobert Edge Pine was born in London, according to 



" The Congress Voting Independence " 5 

ETagler, in 1730, while Bryan, Redgrave, and others give 
the year 1742. If the earlier date is not correct, the later 
one seems impossible from the fact that, in 1760, Pine 
gained the first prize of £100 from the Society for the 
Encouragement of Arts, for the best historical picture that 
was offered, The Surrender of Callais, with figures as large as 
life, a hardly possible achievement for a lad of eighteen. 
He was the son of John Pine, who published (1733-37) the 
beautiful edition of Horace, with vignettes and text 
engraved throughout by himself and whose portrait by 
Hogarth, in the style of Rembrandt, is familiar to students 
of that artist's work. From whom the son gleaned his art 
education is not known, but doubtless the rudiments were 
instilled by his father. In 1762 he again took a first prize 
for his picture of Canute Reproving his Courtiers. Both of 
these prize pictures have been engraved, which is a distinc- 
tion that would hardly have been accorded to the works of 
a youth of eighteen and twenty. Between these two dates 
he had for a pupil that erratic genius John Hamilton Morti- 
mer (1741-79), which would also scarcely have been the 
case had he himself been born only in 1742. l 

Pine devoted himself to historical composition and por- 
traiture, but his chief success was in the latter branch of 
art. The most familiar portraits of John "Wilkes, whose 
principles he espoused, and of David Garrick, whose friend- 
ship he possessed, are from his easel and have been re- 
peatedly engraved, one of the former being lettered, Patri- 
cias Pine humanarum Hgurarum pictor pinxit. He painted at 
least four different portraits of Garrick ; the most important 
for size and composition, Garrick seated at a table reading 
Macbeth, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, while 

1 There is a mezzotint by McArdell, published in 1752, of "Mr. Lowe 
and Mrs. Chambers in the characters of Captain Macheath and Polly," 
after a painting by "R. Pine," which conclusively negatives this date. 
1730, is adopted in Leslie Stephens' Dictionary of National Biography, 
following the writer's article in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American 
Biography, vol. v. p. 23. 



6 " The Congress Voting Independence." 

what is doubtless the original life study for the head in this 
picture is in Philadelphia. Another portrait of Garrick, 
by Pine, is in the Lenox Gallery, New York, and, a genera- 
tion ago, was the subject of an entertaining monograph, by 
the late Gulian C. Verplanck. From 1760 to 1784, Pine 
exhibited fifty portraits at the different exhibitions of the 
Society of Artists and of the Royal Academy. In 1771 he 
angrily withdrew from the Spring Gardens Incorporated 
Society of Artists, of which he was a member, on the ground 
of an insult by the President and removed from London to 
Bath. Here he painted portraits for eight years, when he 
returned to London and in 1782 held an exhibition of a 
collection of Shakespearean pictures that he had painted, 
some of which were afterwards engraved and published in 
Boy dell's Shakespeare. 

In 1784 Pine carried out his often-expressed wish to 
settle in America, by bringing his family to Philadelphia. 
His object is shown in two letters written respectively to 
Messrs. John and Samuel Yaughan, preserved in the Dreer 
Collection of Autographs in the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society; and their date fixes his coming at least a year later 
than that usually given. 

London, Cork Street., Burlington Gardens 

29th April, 1784. 

Sir:— 

I had the favour of yours dated the 4th of Feb. last 
and am greatly oblig'd to you for your kind attention to the 
disposal of my prints, but hope, soon after this, to have the 
happy opportunity of thanking you in person at Philadel- 
phia, having resolv'd to endulge myself in visiting the Place 
and People whom I have most respected. I purpose bringing 
with me the original Allegorical Picture of America, with 
many Historical Pictures and others and doubt not the kind 
assistance of Mr. Vaughan, and the Ladies, towards pro- 
curing me a favourable reception. I hope to be able to 
leave England in about a Month, and am now greatly 



11 The Congress Voting Independence." 7 

employ'd in making preparation. My best respects attend 
on Mr. Vaughan and Ladies and am Dr. Sir 

Your oblig'd and faithful Serv. 

R. E. Pine 
To John Vaughan, Esq., Philadelphia. 

Cork Street, Burlington Gardens. 

May 2nd 1784. 
Dear Sir : — 

In my letter to Mr. John Vaughan in reply to his favour 
concerning the Prints he obliged me with the care of, I 
communicated my intention of immediately visiting your 
happy Country, but I now find that I shall not be able to 
compleat the business I have in hand, in proper time for 
the Voyage. I therefore must necessarily postpone for a 
short time the gratification of a wish and hope I have for 
some years entertain'd — by which delay I hope I may be 
favour'd with your opinion of the present state of the coun- 
try, with respect to the disposition and ability of its inhab- 
itants for giving encouragement to Painting, either at Por- 
traits or in perpetuating to Posterity the many glorious Acts 
which honours the name of an American. I think I could 
pass the latter part of my life happier in a Country where 
the noblest Principles have been defended and establish'd, 
than with the People who have endeavored to subdue them. 
I therefore hope you'll be able to satisfye me, that in so 
doing I do not hazard the rendering myself the less able 
to provide for my Family. Your kind attention to this and 
a speedy reply will be very important to me and add to the 
many services with which you have favour'd my dear Sir 

Your much oblig'd and faithfull hum'll serv 

R. E. Pine 

To Sam '11 Vaughan, Esq., Philadelphia. 

P. S. Mrs Pine and daughters joyn with me in best 
regards to Your Self and the Ladies. 

The exact date of Pine's coming to Philadelphia is unim- 
portant, but an advertisement in The Pennsylvania Packet for 
November 15, 1784, shows that he was then here and 



8 " The Congress Voting Independence" 

affords an item of information of the first importance in 
connection with the picture under consideration. It reads : 

Mr. PINE, 

being honoured with the use of a commodious apartment 
in the State-house, for the purpose of painting the most 
illustrious scenes in the late revolution, hopes that those 
who are desirous of seeing his pictures, will not disapprove 
of contributing one quarter of a dollar on entrance, in order 
to be accommodated with proper attendance, fires and de- 
scriptive catalogues of the paintings. 

"N, B. Attendance will be given at the side door of the 
Congress chamber, every morning, except Sundays at 11 
o'clock. To open to-morrow. 

On December 1st, in the same paper, he announces that 

" The Sessions of the Supreme Court being over Mr. 

Pine's Pictures are replacing in the Congress Chamber at 

the State House and may be seen to-morrow (after the hour 

of eleven) as usual." 

And among the Etting Papers in The Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania will be found A Descriptive catalogue of Pictures 
* Painted by Robert Edge Pine. 17 84-. Philadelphia; Printed 
by Francis Bailey, at Yorrick's Head, in Market Street. It 
contains twenty-seven pictures chiefly from Shakespeare, 
although ISTo. 1 shows the sentiment that brought the 
painter to this country : — " Allegorical Piece, representing 
America, after having suffered the several evils of the late 
American "War is lamenting the deaths of those brave offi- 
cers who fell in the glorious cause of Freedom." This is 
of course the picture mentioned in the letter to John 
Vaughan. It was painted as early as 1778 and was en- 
graved on copper, in stipple, by Joseph Strutt, in 1781, 
and dedicated " To those who wish to sheathe the deso- 
lating sword of War and to restore the blessings of Peace 
and Amity to a divided people." A framed copy of this 
engraving is in the gallery of The Historical Society; and 
in the Inventory of Pine's estate, hereafter to be more 



" The Congress Voting Independence" 9 

particularly mentioned, there appears the original copper 
plate with one hundred and sixty-eight prints. There is 
a very rare print of this picture, also in stipple, bearing 
the name of A. Doolittle sculp. New Haven.. I have not had 
the opportunity to compare the Strutt and Doolittle prints to 
determine whether Doolittle actually re-engraved the Strutt 
print upon the copper or obtained the original Strutt plate 
from Pine's estate and inserted his own name as engraver, 
a not uncommon practice with some followers of the burin. 

The object Pine had in view he sought to fulfill by paint- 
ing portraits of the eminent men of the revolutionary period, 
with the intention of representing in several large paintings 
the principal events of the war, but it is doubtful if any of 
these pictures were completed. That he began their com- 
position we know from the inventory of his estate, on file 
in the Register's office, at Philadelphia (No. 146 of 1789), 
which enumerates among other items, unfinished pictures 
representing The American Congress Voting Independence, Cap- 
ture of Lord Corniuallis and the Colors laid before Congress, 
General Washington Resigning his Commission to Congress, 
General Washington under the Character of Fortitude, four por- 
traits of Washington, and the allegory of America Suffering 
the Evils of War. 

The first portrait Pine is said to have painted after his 
arrival here is the well-known one of Francis Hopkinson, 
now in the gallery of The Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
and it was a letter from this gentleman to Washington, that 
drew forth the famous reply from Washington beginning 
" In for a penny in for a pound is an old adage." This letter 
is as " hackneyed" as Washington complained he was " to 
the touches of the painter's pencil;" but the Hopkinson let- 
ter has never been printed, so I give it from the original in 
the Emmet Collection in the New York Public Library. 

Dear Sir • Philada. 19th April 1785. 

Encouraged by the friendly notice with which you have 
upon every occasion been pleased to honor me, I take the 



10 " The Congress Voting Independence." 

liberty of recommending to your kind attention my friend 
Mr. Pine, an artist of acknowledged eminence, and who 
has given the World many pleasing and forcible speci- 
mens of Genius. Zeal for the American Cause has brought 
him over from England, to secure whilst it is yet possible, 
faithful representations of some of the most interesting 
Events of the late War — not ideal pictures but real Por- 
traits of the Persons and places concerned. You will 
easily discover the tendency of this letter and of Mr. Pine's 
visit. Scenes, wherein you were so conspicuous a Part, can- 
not be faithfully represented if you are omitted. I know 
you have already suffered much persecution under the 
painter's pencil and verily believe that you would rather 
fight a battle, on a just occasion, than sit for a Picture, be- 
cause there is Life and Vigour in Fortitude, and Patience is 
but a dull Virtue. I would not insinuate that you have 
not much Patience but am very sure you have a great deal 
of good nature and on this we depend on the present oc- 
casion. It would be no compliment to Mr. Pine to say he 
is the most eminent artist, in his way, we have ever had in 
this country. But his own pencil will display his abilities 
in much better Terms than my pen, and I have no doubt 
but you will find him worthy of your notice in every respect. 
Mrs. Hopkinson joins me in most respectful Regards to your 
good Lady. With sincerest wishes for your Health and pros- 
perity, I am, Dear Sir Your ever affectionate friend and 

faithful humble Servant, 
Genl. Washington. Feas. Hopkinson. 

Pine's likeness of Washington is feeble and unsatisfactory 
as are many of the portraits that he painted in this country. 
At Pine's death he left four portraits of Washington, de- 
scribed in the Inventory as " Kitt-cat," which is unquestion- 
ably an error in size for half-length, as the three portraits 
of him by Pine, now known, are of this size. 

Pine was generously patronized by people of considera- 
tion, doubtless owing to his friendly disposition toward the 



" The Congress Voting Independence" 11 

land of his adoption, and Kobert Morris, whose best known 
portrait he painted, built a house for him in Philadelphia 
which was adapted for the exhibition of his pictures and 
the prosecution of his painting. He visited Washington, at 
Mount Yernon in April of 1785, 1 and on his journeyings 
thither and back he painted a number of pictures in Mary- 
land which survive, including family pictures of the Carroll 
and of the Caton families. Pine died suddenly of apoplexy 
in Philadelphia, November 1 9, 1788, but I have been unable 
to learn where he was buried. He is described by Joseph 
Hopkinson as a " very small man, morbidly irritable. His 
wife and daughters were also very diminutive; they were 
indeed a family of pigmies." After his death his wife, who 
kept a school for girls in Philadelphia, petitioned the Legis- 
lature of Pennsylvania to be allowed to dispose of her hus- 
band's pictures by lottery, which request was granted ; but 
the project was not successful, and only a few were disposed 
of in that way ; the greater number being purchased by 
Daniel Bowen, 2 proprietor, with Edward Savage, of Savage 
and Bowen's New York Museum, "a mingled establish- 
ment, half painting-gallery, half museum" 3 which Washing- 
ton visited September 14, 1789, when located at 74 Water 
Street. 4 Later it was " in Greenwich Street, in a building 
once used as a circus." 5 Just when the sale to Bowen and 
Savage took place I do not know, but it must have been 
subsequent to January 7, 1794, on which date James Kent 
writes from Philadelphia, "I visited also Pine's Cabinet of 
Paintings. The colors were coarse, but some of the pict- 

1 "April 28. — To Dinner M r Pine a pretty eminent Portrait & His- 
torical Painter arrived in order to take my picture from the life & to 
plan it in the Historical pieces he was about to draw. This Gentleman 
stands in good estimation as a Painter in England ; — comes recommended 
to me from Col Fairfax — M r Morris — Gov r Dickenson — M r Hopkinson 
& others." — Washington's Diary, 1785. 

2 Daniel Bowen died in Philadelphia, February 29, 185G, aged 96. 

3 Dunlap, History of the Art of Design, vol. ii. p. 261. 
* Penna. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., vol. xix. p. 441. 
5 Dunlap, vol. i. p. 321. 



12 " The Congress Voting Independence" 

ures striking, particularly the allegorical piece representing 
America." l In 1795 thelsTew York Museum was removed 
to Boston and called the Columbian Museum. It was lo- 
cated at the Head of the Mall, and a broadside descriptive 
catalogue of its contents, in the possession of the writer, 
enumerates one hundred and twenty-three finished pictures 
on exhibition, chiefly painted by Pine, beginning with No. 1. 
An Allegorical Piece, representing America, etc., and ending 
with The original drawing of America. The two prize paint- 
ings of 1760 and 1762, were respectively Nos. 15 and 16, of 
the catalogue, which contains also the paintings exhibited 
in Philadelphia, in 1784, paintings of Mr. Loivndes and Fam- 
ily of Maryland, Mr. Sterrett and Family of Maryland, and 
Mr. Hanson and Family of Maryland; portraits of Charles 
Thomson, Kichard Henry Lee, Charles Carroll of Carroll- 
ton, Samuel Chase, General Washington, and many others 
not pertinent to our present inquiry. 2 

The museum, with the greater portion of its collections, 
was destroyed by fire January 15, 1803. In 1806, Bowen and 
~W. M. S. Doyle, an indifferent portrait painter, erected the 
museum building on Tremont Street, which, the next year, 
was burned, rebuilt, and kept up until 1825, when the Colum- 
bian Museum passed to the E~ew England Museum. Fifteen 
years later the New England Museum became the property 
of Moses Kimball, who maintained it, as the Boston Museum, 
for more than half a century. Mr. Kimball died February 
21, 1895, aged eighty-nine years. In the fall of 1892, he be- 
gan the dispersal of the museum collection by the sale of 
Savage's painting of The Washington Family, well known 
from engravings, now owned by The Democratic Club, 
New York, and soon afterwards the writer acquired the 
painting of The Congress Voting Independence, now under 
consideration. 

Exactly what portions of the painting of The Congress 

1 Kent's Life of Chancellor Kent, Boston, 1898, p. 60. 

2 A very interesting cabinet portrait of Alexander Hamilton, by Pine, 
has recently come into the possession of Doctor Wier Mitchell. 



" The Congress Voting Independence." 13 

Voting Independence, were by Pine and what by Savage, it is 
of course impossible exactly to determine. We know that 
the picture was left by Pine unfinished when he died, and 
we know that it afterward came into the possession of 
Savage. We know that Pine's painting room was the Congress 
Chamber in the State House. We know that the portraits of 
Francis Hopkinson, sitting at the President's table, writing ; 
of Charles Carroll, seated to the right of Franklin, talking 
with Stephen Hopkins, the figure to the extreme right, 
wearing a hat; of George Eead, he between Carroll and 
Hopkins, and of William Paca, the centre of the standing 
group of three, on extreme left, talking to Doctor Rush, are 
all from known originals by Pine. We know further that 
Pine was an educated and accomplished history painter and 
that this picture, with its thirty-two figures, is remarkably 
well composed and drawn in a manner far superior to what 
any of the works of Savage would lead us to assume that 
he was competent to do. Indeed, the difference in ability 
of the two men is shown in this very work. The group of 
four standing before the table, with the senile figure of 
Franklin, seated near, with legs crossed, is beautiful and 
most artistic and in strong contrast with the awkward, 
seated figure of Robert Morris, in front of the table to the 
left, with walking-stick in hand, which is unquestionably by 
Savage, as the original of this portrait of Morris, by Savage, 
is in the possession of the writer. Savage also certainly 
painted the portraits of John Adams and ot Robert Treat 
Paine on extreme left to front, and he must have limned the 
benign but characterless profile of Jefferson, who presents 
the Declaration to Hancock, as Jefferson did not return from 
France, after an absence of five years, until Pine had been 
a year in his grave. We know by the Columbian Museum 
catalogue that Pine had painted portraits of Charles Thom- 
son, seated at the table beside Hancock ; of Richard Henry 
Lee, and of Samuel Chase, but which are Lee and Chase 
in the picture, I cannot determine. He also painted a 
portrait of Thomas Stone, but I cannot identify it in the 



14 " The Congress Voting Independence." 

picture. Of the central group, the figure in profile, with 
glasses and big wig, facing Adams and Sherman, puzzles 
me exceedingly. The others being plainly Jefferson, Sher- 
man, John Adams, and Franklin, the fifth should be Robert 
R. Livingston, the other member of the Committee, but it 
in no wise resembles him in face, figure, costume, or age. 
I am inclined to the opinion that it is William Ellery, as 
he, with Franklin and James Wilson, is the only " signer" 
always represented wearing spectacles, and it is not Wilson 
as he sits writing at the table to the rear, on the left of the 
picture ; but why Ellery should be given such a prominent 
position I cannot surmise. The most interesting piece of 
portraiture in the painting is undoubtedly the central figure 
of Franklin. It shows his figure and profile in old age as 
we have them preserved no where else, and it is an ex- 
tremely characteristic bit of portrait work, unquestionably 
from the hand of Pine. 1 

It is my opinion therefore that the composition and de- 
tails of the picture are entirely by Robert Edge Pine, 
'painted in the very room in which the event sought to be commem- 
orated was enacted, which in Pine's time had not been 
changed or altered, from what it was in 1776, and giving 
its lines with the exactness of an architectural drawing. The 
last point is of the first importance, and this painting was 
accordingly made use of in the recent restoration of Inde- 
pendence Hall to its original condition. That Savage fin- 
ished Pine's picture of The Congress Voting Independence, is 
shown not only inherently, but also by the old Museum Cat- 
alogues in the Public Library at Boston. He did more. 
He essayed the engraving of it upon copper the same size 
as the painting, twenty-six inches by nineteen inches, and 
the unfinished copper plate to-day is in the cabinet of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, as the work of an unknown 
engraver. 2 It was reserved for the writer to discover that 

1 Franklin died April 17, 1790, and Savage did not visit Philadelphia 
until after this date. 

2 Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Society, 1858-60, p. 391. 



" The Congress Voting Independence." 15 

this plate was also the work of Edward Savage. At the 
auction sale of the papers of Colonel Trumbull, in this 
city, a few years ago, I chanced upon a letter that told the 
story. It was dated " Boston April 11, 1818," from Edward 
Savage, son of the painter, to John Trumbull, offering to sell 
to the latter the plate and paper of the " print of Congress 
'76 wich my Farther (late Edward Savage) had nerely com- 
pleated," stating that " the plate is now in a situation that it 
may be finished in a few weeks." Trumbull drafted his reply 
upon the letter he had received, as was his custom, in which 
he declines the offer, stating that " my painting of the sub- 
ject was begun more than thirty years ago and all the heads 
were soon after secured." Trumbull's given period for be- 
ginning his picture of The Declaration of Independence, the 
year of Pine's death, adds strength to my thought that he 
received something more than " mere suggestion" for his 
picture from Pine's earlier work. This view is further for- 
tified by the fact that Trumbull did not actually begin his 
picture until 1791, as he wrote to Jefferson, a few months 
earlier than his letter to Savage. 

Edward Savage was born in Princeton, Massachusetts, No- 
vember 26, 1761, and died there July 6, 1817. He was 
originally a goldsmith, but subsequently turned his attention 
to painting and engraving. Towards the close of 1789 he 
left Massachusetts for ISTew York, armed with a letter from 
President Willard, of Harvard College, to President Wash- 
ington, requesting him to sit to Savage for a portrait which 
the painter desired to present to the university. Washington 
complied with the request and gave Savage a first sitting on 
December 21 " from ten to one o'clock" 1 Washington sat 
again a week later " all the forenoon," and on January 6, 
1790, " from half after eight o'clock till ten, for the por- 
trait painter Mr. Savage to finish the picture of me which 
he had begun for the University of Cambridge." This por- 
trait is on canvas, twenty-five by thirty inches, and Josiah 
Quincy, for many years President of Harvard, declared it 

1 Washington's Diary, 1789-91. New York, 1860. 






16 " The Congress Voting Independence" 

to be the best likeness he had ever seen of Washington, 
" though its merits as a work of art were but small." 

Savage subsequently removed to Philadelphia, the seat of 
government, and in 1791 went to London, where he is said 
to have studied under West, and afterwards to have visited 
Italy. While in London he engraved and published, after his 
own paintings, bust portraits, in stipple, of General Knox 
(December 7, 1791), and of Washington (February 7, 1792), 
and his well-known three-quarter length portrait of the 
President, in mezzotint (June 25, 1793), his first work in 
that style. 1 When he returned to this country he settled in 
Philadelphia, where his brother, John Savage, was engaged 
as a publisher, and there issued mezzotint portraits, also from 
his own paintings, of Anthony Wayne (June 1, 1796), Doc- 
tor Eush (February 6, 1800), and Jefferson (June 1, 1800), 
and folio plates in stipple of Liberty (June 1, 1796), and 
of The Washington Family (March 10, 1798). These plates 
show Savage to have been a much better engraver than 
painter as his plates both in stipple and in mezzotint are 
skilfully and pleasingly executed. The stories promulgated 
by Dunlap, and very commonly adopted and repeated, that 
Edwin engraved the plates bearing Savage's name are absurd 
on their face and disproved by dates. 

This survey of the entire subject, with the abundant 
data I have been able to adduce in support of my view, I 
feel must be accepted without question as fixing the author- 
ship of the painting of The Congress Voting Independence, 
owned by The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, upon 
Robert Edge Pine, who left the work unfinished at his 
death, and the unfinished canvas coming into the possession 
of Edward Savage, was completed by him. 2 

1 For other engravings after Savage's portraits of Washington, see 
"Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of Washington. By Charles 
Henry Hart. New York, The Grolier Club. 1904." 

2 For an account of Edward Savage Painter and Engraver and his 
unfinished copper-plate of The Congress Voting Independence, by the present 
writer, see Proc. of Mass. Historical Society for January, 1905. 



■fc S '10 



